Status of Women Committee on March 23rd, 2023

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Good afternoon. I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 56 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

Today's meeting is taking place in hybrid format pursuant to the House order of June 23, 2022. I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of the witnesses and members.

I see that we do have some witnesses online. Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mike, and please mute your mike when you are not speaking. For interpretation for those on Zoom, you have the choice at the bottom of your screen of floor, English or French, and for those in the room, use the translation on the earpiece.

Members, if you wish to speak, please raise your hand. The clerk and I will manage the speaking list.

In accordance with the committee's routine proceedings, all witnesses appearing virtually have completed the required connection tests in advance of today's meeting.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, the committee will resume its study on human trafficking of women, girls and gender diverse people.

Before we welcome our witnesses, I would like to provide a trigger warning. As Jenna has said, we do trigger warnings here, it seems. This will be a difficult study. We will be discussing experiences related to abuse. They will be potentially triggering for viewers, members or staff with similar experiences. If you feel distressed or you need help, please reach out to the clerk or me.

It's 10 minutes after four right now. We will be doing today's meeting until six o'clock, so we won't be going the full two hours. It's straight until six o'clock. My only concern is that we'll see what the second panel is looking like, so I will probably be taking five minutes off here and five minutes off there, so don't mind me, but I have my math. I know ABC today.

I would now like to welcome our first panel.

We have, from the Department for Women and Gender Equality, Crystal Garrett-Baird, director general for gender-based violence.

From the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, we have Alexis Graham, director, social and discretionary policy and programs, social and temporary migration branch; and Sarah Hayward, director, visitors, permits and horizontal initiatives, immigration program guidance branch.

From the Department of Justice, we have Nathalie Levman, senior counsel, criminal law policy section.

The witnesses will be given five minutes each. I'll be starting off with the Department for Women and Gender Equality for five minutes.

You have the floor, Crystal.

[Crystal Garrett-Baird, Director General, Gender-Based Violence, Department for Women and Gender Equality]

Good day, and thank you.

My name is Crystal Garrett-Baird. I am the director general responsible for working to address gender-based violence at Women and Gender Equality Canada.

I would like to begin by acknowledging that the land I am coming to you from is the traditional and unceded territory of the Abegweit Mi'kmaq first nation.

I want to thank this committee for the opportunity to speak on behalf of Women and Gender Equality Canada concerning human trafficking—a form of gender-based violence.

Many people experience violence because of their sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression or perceived gender. This is gender-based violence.

Data shows that human trafficking is a gendered crime. Police-reported incidents between 2011 and 2021 show that 96% of all detected victims were women and girls, 71% of whom were under the age of 25. Human trafficking also disproportionately impacts indigenous women and girls, 2SLGBTQI+ individuals as well as their families and communities.

The Government of Canada is taking action to address gender-based violence through initiatives including the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking 2019-2024 and the recently launched National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.

Led by Public Safety Canada, the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking brings together federal efforts under one strategic framework in a comprehensive, coordinated and multi-faceted approach.

As part of the national strategy, Women and Gender Equality Canada is funding 42 projects for a total of nearly $14 million. These projects in communities across Canada are allocated through open calls for proposals and are led by civil society partners who represent various geographic, demographic, and lived experiences.

The projects are designed to prevent and address human trafficking and support at-risk populations, victims and survivors, who are among the thousands of people reached through WAGE-funded projects.

In addition to this work, budget 2021 provided an investment of $601.3 million over five years to address gender-based violence. Of this funding, Women and Gender Equality Canada received $105 million to enhance the gender-based violence program. Some of this funding is supporting initiatives to stop human trafficking and enhance supports for at-risk populations.

As part of budget 2021 funding, the department also received $30 million for crisis hotlines to support the urgent needs of Canadians experiencing gender-based violence. Crisis lines can be a lifeline to victims and survivors, and their funding is essential in ensuring survivors and their families have access to the help they need, when they need it, including those who are victims of human trafficking.

Budget 2022 committed $539.3 million to support the provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the national action plan to end gender-based violence. This plan was launched in November 2022 by the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers responsible for the status of women. The national action plan was informed by over 1,000 recommendations through years of engagement.

[Crystal Garrett-Baird]

The plan provides a framework through which federal, provincial, and territorial governments will have a Canada free of gender-based violence which supports victims, survivors, and their families. The plan is aligned with and complements the national strategy to combat human trafficking, along with the missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people national action plan and the federal pathway.

The national action plan is built on a number of pillars: support for victims, survivors and their families; prevention; responsive justice system; implementing indigenous-led approaches; social infrastructure and enabling environment based on a foundation of leadership, coordination and engagement; data, research and knowledge mobilization; and reporting and monitoring.

The national action plan helps federal, provincial and territorial governments to build on existing initiatives and continues to work with victims and survivors, indigenous partners, direct service providers, civil society organizations, experts, and researchers to prevent and address gender-based violence in Canada, including human trafficking.

Thank you for your time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're going to pass it over to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

Alexis Graham, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Alexis Graham, Director, Social and Discretionary Policy and Programs, Social and Temporary Migration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Good afternoon, Madam Chair.

Good afternoon, honourable members of the House of Commons and the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

My name is Alexis Graham, and I am responsible for social and discretionary policy and programs at IRCC. Joining me is my colleague, Sarah Hayward, from the operations sector.

I am pleased to be talking to you about an important issue that affects the vulnerability of individuals, and as specifically regards my department—Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, IRCC—the vulnerability of immigrants. I am talking about human trafficking.

IRCC plays a small but important role in the governmental architecture associated with this serious issue of trafficking in persons. Specifically, the department is responsible for helping protect out-of-status foreign national victims of trafficking.

This role has been made more visible since the Government of Canada's implementation of the horizontal national strategy to combat human trafficking in 2019. The strategy, led by Public Safety Canada, is composed of five pillars. Protection is the pillar under which IRCC's work falls; however, IRCC has, in fact, been involved in this protection role since 2006. The way we carry out this responsibility is to issue victims a special temporary resident permit. We call these permits VTIP TRPs—forgive the acronym—and they are issued at an officer's discretion.

VTIP TRPs are critical in helping victims secure immigration status in order to give them the possibility to decide on their next steps. This enables victims to escape the influence of their traffickers and start their recovery from the physical and mental trauma they may have experienced. They provide access to health care under the interim federal health program, including coverage for medical and psychological services. They also allow victims to apply for an open work permit.

These special permits may also be issued to victims' dependent family members in Canada. It is important to note that it is not necessary for victims to testify against their trafficker to benefit from this measure.

An initial VTIP TRP is typically issued for a period of 180 days and is fee exempt. A victim may also apply for a subsequent TRP if they wish to remain in Canada for longer. This can be issued for up to three years.

They can also apply for permanent residence, including on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, or claim asylum if they're in need of refugee protection.

Victims are generally referred to IRCC by law enforcement or non-governmental organizations, but they can also self-identify.

IRCC has processes already in place to ensure that applications made by victims of human trafficking are easily identified and are quickly assigned to an officer. These applications are also processed on a priority basis, taking precedence over applications of a less urgent nature.

IRCC also conducts administrative investigations to identify facilitators of human trafficking and, thus, try to disrupt human trafficking networks. IRCC often works in close co-operation with law enforcement agencies, such as the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP.

Overall, the number of VTIP TRPs issued by the department is low; however, in recent years, numbers have been increasing. To illustrate, while fewer than 100 of these VTIP TRPs were issued per year up to and including 2018, in 2019, 238 were approved. Most recently, in 2022, 155 VTIP TRPs were provided to victims and their dependents.

In terms of client gender, more VTIP TRPs have been issued to males in recent years. From 2019 to 2022, approximately 60% of VTIP TRPs were issued to males and approximately 40% to females.

In closing, I would like to point out that IRCC continues to monitor human trafficking cases brought to its attention, and to engage with partners and stakeholders in order to ensure that the department is able to effectively carry out its mandate of protecting victims of human trafficking.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're going to turn it over to the Department of Justice and Nathalie Levman.

Nathalie, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Nathalie Levman, Senior Counsel, Criminal Law Policy Section, Department of Justice]

Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee on human trafficking. I'd like to begin by acknowledging that I'm speaking from the traditional unceded territory of the Anishinabe nation.

I propose to provide a brief overview of the relevant international legal framework, Canada’s criminal law framework addressing human trafficking and relevant jurisprudence. I will also highlight some of the department’s work supporting implementation.

Canada ratified the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons in 2002. This treaty includes a definition of “trafficking in persons” in article 3, which requires three elements to be present: an act, such as recruiting, transporting or harbouring another person, which is effected through specific means, such as coercion, abduction, deception or the abuse of a position of vulnerability, and for the specific purpose of exploiting that person. Rather than defining “exploitation”, article 3 gives examples of exploitative conduct, such as sexual exploitation or forced labour, which require proof of coercive practices.

In 2002, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act was amended to include a human trafficking-specific offence that applies in transnational cases only. It is in subsection 118(1). This offence does not require proof of an exploitative purpose. Rather, the offence only requires proof that the accused committed a specific act, such as recruiting, transporting or harbouring a person through specified illicit means, such as abduction, deception, force or coercion.

In 2005, the Criminal Code was amended to include trafficking in persons-specific offences in sections 279.01 to 279.03. The main trafficking offences don't require proof that the act element was effected through illicit means. Rather, the offence only requires proof that the accused committed a specific act, such as recruiting, transporting or harbouring a person for the purpose of exploitation.

Exploitation is defined, given that criminal provisions require clarity. Specifically, exploitation occurs where a reasonable person in the victim’s circumstances would believe that their physical or psychological safety were threatened if they failed to provide the labour or services required of them.

Relevant Ontario Court of Appeal jurisprudence clarifies that the definition of exploitation does not require proof that the victim was actually afraid—only that a reasonable person in the victim’s circumstances would be. The court also explains that exploitation is to be interpreted broadly and that it captures both physical and psychological forms.

In a subsequent decision, the court upheld the accused’s conviction in a case that involved abuse of power, but no violence or threats, and found that a broad range of factors are relevant when assessing whether conduct amounts to exploitation as defined in the Criminal Code. These factors include any power imbalance between the accused and the victim, victim vulnerability due to age or personal circumstances and the conduct employed by the accused to extract labour or services from the victim, such as physical or psychological coercion, deception, directive behaviour, control of finances or monitoring the victim’s communications with others. Other appellate courts have followed this jurisprudence.

It is well established that human trafficking offences can be difficult to prove regardless of how they are framed. As noted in Statistics Canada’s 2020 human trafficking juristat, prosecutors may struggle to secure convictions, including because the trauma to which victims are subjected may create difficulties in recalling the relevant events, resulting in victims being perceived as less credible. Victim support and trauma-informed care, therefore, are critical to both healing and successful prosecutions.

To assist with implementation, justice officials regularly train law enforcement on the legislative framework, as well as related issues, such as victim vulnerability and the importance of fostering relationships of trust.

This is done in the context of the RCMP's Canadian Police College human trafficking investigator's course. It's a 10-day course. Justice officials are also working with their provincial and territorial counterparts to update the 2015 federal, provincial and territorial publication, A Handbook for Criminal Justice Practitioners on Trafficking in Persons. It's anticipated that the updated version will be ready for public release by the end of 2023.

That concludes my remarks. I welcome any questions you may have.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We will get started with our rounds of questioning. We will be starting with six-minute rounds.

I will be passing it over to Dominique Vien.

Dominique, you have six minutes.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ladies, thank you for making the time to speak with us about this very far-reaching issue. It's clear that human trafficking exploits victims not only sexually, but also economically. That's what I've come to understand and what I've heard since the committee began its study.

Ms. Levman, 90% of the time, the victims of human trafficking are women and girls. Do you know the exact number of women who have been victims of human trafficking in Canada? Do I need to specify victims who have been sexually exploited? Is it necessary to examine the different facets of the issue separately? Do you already have an overall picture of who those victims are?

[Nathalie Levman]

Thank you for the question.

I'd like to direct you to Statistics Canada's juristats. The two most recent ones were released in 2022 and 2021. Both of them have criminal justice statistics with the types of numbers you're looking for.

Human trafficking is a complex crime and often difficult to detect. In terms of the data we have on it more generally, a range of data sources are required to give us a picture of how human trafficking manifests. It's not just the Statistics Canada juristats that we look to to figure out what it looks like in Canada.

You raised the difference between forced labour and sex trafficking. One issue we do have is that human trafficking provisions don't make that distinction. They apply regardless of the type of labour or service that is at issue.

What we do know from the human trafficking juristats is that the majority of cases that are going through our courts concern sexual exploitation, although forced labour cases do appear to be on the rise.

Those reports, I think, will be very useful for you in terms of understanding what human trafficking looks like in Canada.

Those juristats also refer to qualitative data, and that might help the committee as well. Qualitative data indicates that traffickers recruit and groom potential victims. They target vulnerable individuals such as those who are socially or emotionally isolated or financially desperate, and they manipulate them, including by building trust through false promises and deception.

Once victims come to rely on traffickers for their basic needs, they are very easy to manipulate.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

At the Department of Justice, how many women do you manage to help every year? Of those women, how many are being trafficked?

[Nathalie Levman]

Maybe I need to explain what our role is.

I'm from the criminal law policy section. We are responsible, from a policy perspective, for the Criminal Code. That includes developing legislation to amend it.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair. I'm missing a lot of what's being said because the interpretation is cutting out.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Dominique, as I'm speaking, can you hear me? You can. Okay.

Perhaps we can go back. I'll just pause that again. Do we need to start at the beginning of the answer? Where did you need us to start, Dominique? Was it at the question?

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Actually, this was my question: Do you know how many women in Canada are victims of human trafficking?

[Nathalie Levman]

As I said, what we know is from the juristats. The juristats do provide numbers on the number of victims each year in each individual human trafficking case. I don't have them memorized right now, but that should help you.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you.

Ms. Graham, unfortunately it's very likely that people are being trafficked across our border. You said earlier that you conducted investigations. What kinds of investigations do you carry out? What kinds of situations do you come across involving immigrants who were brought here against their will? Do you have any data based on your investigations that you can share with us?

[Alexis Graham]

I'm going to let Ms. Hayward answer that.

[Sarah Hayward, Director, Visitors, Permits and Horizontal Initiatives, Immigration Program Guidance Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

IRCC works very closely with our partners in Public Safety, all the police services and the RCMP.

We do what's called an administrative investigation, which means that we use our database, GCMS. It helps us look for trends and strange anomalies, and then we share this information with our partners who actually do the physical investigation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

I'm going to pass it over to Sonia Sidhu.

Sonia, you have six minutes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for being with us.

My first question is for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

What efforts are in place to ensure that newcomers, international students and other groups are protected and know what resources are available for them?

[Alexis Graham]

In terms of the specific measure we have in place to support victims of trafficking or people who may become victims of trafficking, it really is quite focused on that out-of-status national population. It is designed that way because out-of-status nationals really are within the scope of IRCC's mandate. We can confer that status and help alleviate that vulnerability, because if people are out of status, they are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and are likely to be fearful of deportation as well. The specific measure, that VTIP TRP, is really focused on that particular population.

That being said, obviously we know that there are in-status individuals who are also vulnerable, so there are a few measures in place to help support them as well. One is specific to temporary foreign workers. There's an open work permit for vulnerable workers who are in Canada on a closed work permit. The closed work permit is essentially tied to a specific employer. They can apply for this open work permit and be given the labour mobility that enables them to move out of those abusive situations they may be experiencing.

In terms of international students specifically, there's no measure we have that focuses on them, but there may be....

Go ahead, Sarah.

[Sarah Hayward]

It's not really to do with trafficking, but it does because information is key for everyone and vulnerable people, so IRCC does a lot of outreach to international students abroad. Our website is full of all kinds of information about possible nefarious traffickers or agents and explains how you can apply without anyone's assistance.

We also, in some areas of the world where we know there are a lot of nefarious agents, do a lot of outreach, explaining, for instance, the international student program and what they can expect. We also have some publicity and advertising campaigns in some parts of the world that we have more issues with.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

My next question is for the Department of Justice.

How can we educate and equip children so they recognize the signs of human trafficking and can prevent themselves from being victimized?

[Nathalie Levman]

That's an excellent question. It's a bit outside my expertise, since I deal with the criminal laws that apply to human trafficking in the human trafficking context.

On Monday, you had my colleague from Public Safety before you. She explained the public awareness measures Public Safety is developing. Justice does the same for certain types of legal issues.

That type of information can be very empowering for people at risk of becoming trafficked. We want to ensure they know their rights in Canada, that it is never okay to be exploited here and that when it occurs, they can come forward and access law enforcement. Part of what we do is train law enforcement. We don't do trauma-informed training—we have experts who do that—but, as I said, we do train on victim vulnerability, the importance of fostering relationships of trust with victims and repairing those relationships so they feel safe and comfortable coming forward to police, who can be seen as people who will help them.